Building Family-Friendly Products and Companies with Sara Mauskopf and Anne Halsall

Today I'm visiting San Francisco's Mission district to chat with Winnie co-founders, Sara Mauskopf and Anne Halsall . They have a unique background working at large tech companies like Google, Twitter, Quora, and Postmates, where they worked together before starting Winnie, “the companion app for parents.”

As someone who's built and admires community-driven businesses, it was a pleasure to dive into how Winnie is creating community and a platform for parents. As mothers, Sara and Anne exemplify founder/market fit and are uniquely qualified to build a product for parents.

In this episode we talk about:

* How Anne and Sara found founder/market fit and how their personal experience — Sara and Anne both have two children — informs not only how they built Winnie the product, but also how they built Winnie the company.

* How Winnie combats fake parenting news, and why it was important for them to take a stance on certain issues and actively moderate out certain topics.

* The power of communities aligned around a single vertical. We compare custom-built communities to generalized community-building tools like Facebook and Reddit.

Of course, we also talk about some of their favorite products, including a way to continuously share your location with other members of your family, an app to share photos with family members, and another that captures one second every day and over time turns it into a highlight reel for your life.

We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Also, big thanks to our sponsors, GE Ventures, Rally Rd , and AngelList for their support.